Tag: Voltron

Hiya Geeklings! It’s August! Excited? Sad the summer’s half over? I say enjoy it while you can! (Even if we’re getting a lot of rain lately)

So let me tell you about my latest discovered fandom. I am way late to the party on this one, but who cares? I found it eventually. I kept seeing it in places like Tumblr, Pinterest and my usual nerdy online hang outs. And then a few nights ago, on a whim, I decided to watch the first episode, just to see what the fuss was about. I finished the first season last night. Holy heck, it was SO GOOD!

Some of you may be asking What the heck is that? Bit of a story there. You see, back in the 1980s (yup, we’re going thereagain; it’s all the rage these days), what some television studios liked to do was to take Japanese anime and heavily edit it to make it an almost entirely new show on the cheap to sell toys. Cynical? Maybe. Do people still have fond memories? Totally. As this article details, that was the same for Voltron. It took the anime Beast King GoLion and tweaked it, though not by a whole lot. The first series made for North American audiences was Lion Force Voltronor Voltron: Defender of the Universe. It featured five pilots of space ships shaped like lions that could combine into a giant robot named Voltron. That was another thing that was huge back then: giant robots. (See: Transformers) These five pilots used Voltron at the behest of Princess Allura to battle the evil King Zarkon, his minions and his own giant ‘ro-beasts’. Admittedly I don’t recall watching this when I was a kid but it had, and has, a pretty passionate fanbase.

(Ah, 80s Anime. Nothing quite like it.)

Fast forward 30-odd years, past a few other versions of the show, to now and to Netflix. Voltron: Legendary Defender tells a similar story but with updated characters and animation. Five humans – Shiro, Keith, Lance, Pidge and Hunk – get swept up in galactic intrigue when they end up becoming the new paladins for Voltron, meaning they fly the lions and form the giant robot. They’ve been recruited by Princess Allura and her majordomo Coran to fight against Emperor Zarkon and his Galra Empire that’s conquered most of the galaxy (think the Empire from Star Wars and all the bad that comes with it, except the Galra have had thousands of years to get it right). The paladins each have their own unique personalities, hang ups, goals and strengths, and they must learn to work and fight together if they’re going to save the galaxy.

The animation style of Legendary Defender harkens back to shows like Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra; shows that were produced in the United States but have very clear Anime influences. No surprise for the comparisons; Legendary Defender‘s showrunners worked on both Airbender and Korra. Similar characteristics exist in each show, such as a good mix of humor and drama, exaggerated facial expressions and some pretty epic action scenes.

So if you don’t have Netflix, how to get in on this? The first 2 seasons have just been released on DVD, so we’ll look into getting it into our collection, but in the meantime we have the graphic novel series on Hoopla and we have some of the episodes in book form. Anyone else seen it and would recommend it? Any naysayers? Post away in the comments or over on Write It.

Have a good week Geeklings. Keep your eyes peeled for news about this September’s Fan Con, and until next time, End of Line.

So this past weekend was San Diego Comic Con, and as per usual we got a ton of news coming out of California on some of our favorite fandoms. So today I thought I’d let them do the talking and post some of the new trailers that you guys might be interested in <3

Movies

Marvel’s Cinematic Universe didn’t have any panels or announcements this year (probably because they’re avoiding spoilers for the last Infinity War film) so that gave DC and Warner Bros a chance to shine. We got our first trailer for this December’s Aquaman. We first met the Atlantean royalty in previous films like Batman v Superman and Justice League but now he headlines his own film, and it’s looking pretty epic.

DC also unveiled a trailer for this April’s SHAZAM!. If you guys aren’t familiar, Shazam is a long-running DC superhero (he used to be called Captain Marvel until Marvel Comics put a stop to that). His alter ego is Billy Batson, a kid who becomes an adult superhero when he shouts SHAZAM, the name of a wizard who imparts his powers to him and an acronym for Solomon, Hercules, Atlas, Zeus, Achilles and Mercury, all Greek gods and heroes (comics are weird but wonderful, aren’t they?).

This looks like a lot of fun, which is something the DCEU has not been known for lately. Aquaman looks like it’s going for a more playful tone too, so hopefully that will continue. These movies are supposed to be fun after all.

I’m torn about this one, as I mentioned in a previous post. Still looks amazing and I love this franchise and a lot of these characters so much but man, those two big problems are hard to get past. We’ll have to see. But, of course, we’ve got a perfect excuse to watch the other Wizarding World films (not like we really needed one)…

The new Doctor is getting ready to make her debut and this new series looks delightful.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars is coming back! This was a big surprise at the Con this year. Fans of the original series had hoped there’d be more episodes, as the show hadn’t really ended the way it was intended too, but there was no real indication that was happening… until the 10 year anniversary panel and this trailer was screened. Fans are over the moon! Plus we have the new show Star Wars: Resistance coming soon as well. Good times for Star Wars animated series.

And Star Wars books. So many Star Wars books! E.K. Johnston will be returning to the galaxy far far away to pen a stand-alone novel for Padme Amidala, the queen/senator/mother of Luke and Leia that we first met in The Phantom Menace. Queen’s Shadow tells of how Padme transitions from queen to senator and how she and her loyal handmaidens must navigate the metaphorical treacherous waters of the Galactic Senate. There’ll also be a novel by Claudia Gray about Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi and there will also be a horror comic series called Tales from Vader’s Castle. LOVE IT! Read the full list of announced books here.

So that’s all for now. Anything I missed? Post away in the comments section. Keep your eyes peeled for more news about our own Fan Con, coming Sept 29, and until next time, End of Line.